Through Children's Eyes: Understanding how to create supportive healthcare environments for children
Kate Bishop, PhD
Research and Design Consultant,
Children Youth and Environments,
Australia
(Click to download full paper)
Background and problem
Currently there is very little research with children and young people to support evidence-based paediatric design. Without children’s perspectives on their experience of hospital settings, designers must make assumptions about children’s experience, their needs, and how to support these which are based on an imagined reality. Children have an authority in their lives which adults cannot have. Understanding children’s experience of hospital environments can only strengthen the capacity of designers, healthcare professionals and policy makers to create hospital environments which support their needs.
Aims
The aims of the research were firstly to understand what constitutes a supportive paediatric setting from children and young people’s perspectives, secondly to describe the roles of the physical environment in children’s feeling of well-being and thirdly to illustrate the value of participatory research to healthcare design.
Objective
This paper presents findings from PhD research into children’s experience of a paediatric hospital environment. The focus of the paper will include the findings from the research and the participatory research process used in the research.
Methods
The study was a participatory qualitative case study, completed with children and young people in a children’s hospital in Sydney, Australia. The children and young people involved in the study were aged between 9-18 years and had been resident in the hospital for at least seven days. Children and young people were also involved in the development of the research questions, instruments and in shaping the final conclusions.
Conclusions
Findings will be presented in relation to the three aims outlined for the study. This will include suggesting what constitutes a more functional and psychosocially supportive paediatric environment and identifying some of the most important attributes of the physical environment that are involved in children’s feeling of well-being, as well as identifying the benefits of participatory research to healthcare design.
Keywords: Children’s hospital design; participatory healthcare design
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